• by April 6, 2009

HomeFinder.com, which provides local real estate listings and was known as Homescape until January, has taken advantage of its joint venture agreements with Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune to launch a nationwide ad campaign -- valued at more than $40 million -- in the real estate sections of 133 newspapers. The ads will run weekly through the remainder of 2009, usually on Sundays.

Papers that are participating include the Chicago Tribune, Arizona Republic, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times and Indianapolis Star.

Newspapers owned by two other investors in Homefinder.com's parent firm Classified Ventures -- Washington Post Co. and Belo -- are not part of the ad campaign, as they have opted to join other newspaper real estate networks, says Tim Fagan, president and CEO of Homefinder.com. But the three remaining chains represent 80% of the Classified Ventures papers, he said.

This is the first obligatory campaign by Homefinder.com network newspapers in the firm's 11-year history, although similar campaigns have been undertaken by Cars.com and Apartments.com, its sister Classified Ventures properties.

Two initial ads, under the theme "Let Homes and People Find Each Other," show side-by-side symmetry of a house and its owner -- one shows a man's spiky hair mimicking the pitch of his home's roof and the other depicts a woman's red lipstick matching the red door of her home. Another four ads will roll out through the year, Fagan says.

He adds that the ads are designed "to send a simple message: "Homefinder is the best place online to find a home."

Newspapers with Sunday circulations exceeding 50,000 are committed to running full-page ads or equivalents each week, with other papers committed to half a page. The ads come in quarter-page, half-page and full-page sizes.

The ads were developed by Chicago-based agency Rosen & Brichta and produced by fellow Chicago shop Rome & Co.